Warlords of Detroit
The Warlords of Detroit (also known as the Warlords of the 22nd Century) is a collective name for a group of self-styled Warlords who battled for control of the Detroit Wasteland in the latter part of the 22nd Century. Their reign lasted from 2174 until 2201, and would have long-term effects on the shape of the Detroit Wasteland for generations to come. History The first of the warlords was Preah Khan, a self-styled conqueror who emerged from the perpetual battles for control of the Flint River. (It is assumed that Preah Khan had no knowledge of the Great Khans, but still drew on the same historical influence). Preah Khan raised an army out of the dregs of Flint, but rather than trying to conquer the city for himself, he set his eyes on what he saw as a greater prize. His ambition was to conquer the Detroit Wasteland or, at the very least, take control of a portion of the ruined city. Compared to Flint, the Detroit Wasteland was more heavily populated, had more resources to draw on and offered more opportunities for growth and expansion. At the same time, the ongoing cycles of warfare in the Flint River region discouraged stability and resulted in a focus on short-term survival rather than long-term planning. Taking his army, Preah Khan traveled towards the Detroit Wasteland. Along the way he conquered and forcibly assimilated several tribal groups and other small communities, adding their numbers to his own growing army. By mid-2174 he had arrived at the ruins of Detroit Metropolitan Airport, taking it to use as his base of operations. After cleansing the ruins of the feral ghouls that infested it, Preah Khan planned his next moves towards the Detroit Wasteland. His first step was to increase the size of his army. This was achieved through conquering several more smaller settlements, as well as raider gangs that were encountered along the way. The settlements were left with much of their infrastructure intact so they could continue to support his army, while the surviving raiders were forcibly conscripted. Rather than rushing his approach, Preah Khan chose caution, not wanting to risk being drawn into an untenable situation against unexpected opponents. Entering the Detroit Wasteland proper, Preah Khan established forward bases before setting his eyes on potential conquests. At that stage, three settlements had risen to prominence in the ruined city; Grand Central, Park Lane and Chryslus Castle. While each was a power in its own right, they were also geographically separated and politically aloof from each other. Preah Khan correctly surmised that if one came under attack then the others would not choose to aid it. Based on geography, Preah Khan chose Chryslus Castle as his first target. He began to march across the ruined city, continuing to conquer and absorb raider gangs as he went. For the moment, the three major settlements remained unaware of what was going on as they lacked the full picture of what was happening and felt that it was likely just another round of intercene warfare between raiders. As Preah Kahn moved his forces into position, he remained unaware that he was not alone in his ambition. Another warlord, known as the Butcher, had entered the city from the other side and had followed a similar model of conquest. Like him, she had also aimed to take control of Chryslus Castle for the same reasons. Inevitably, their forces came into contact, resulting in immediate bloodshed. Both believed that they were simply engaging another Raider gang, an assumption that proved to be incorrect. When Preah Khan and the Butcher both realised what they were actually facing, both reached the same conclusion. Neither could suffer the other to live. Taking and holding Chryslus Castle would be impossible when the other Warlord had the capacity to simply take it from them. Likewise, moving to conquer another settlement would mean yielding ground to their rival. Both felt that their best course of action was to eliminate the other, absorb what they could of their forces, and then resume their campaign of conquest. The result was a bloody war between the two warlords as they fought over territories. Both chose to extend their reach as they fought in order to seek out new recruits and potential targets; Preah Khan began to extend his reach towards Grand Central, while the Butcher probed into downtown while skirting around Park Lane. However, it was the northern front that would remain the centre of their attention as they both fought over the same prize. In mid-2177, the Butcher achieved something of a breakthrough, smashing Preah Khan’s northern front and killing one of his closest aides. Pressing her advantage, she chose to mount an attack on Chyrslus Castle itself to take it for her own. This proved to be a disaster, as not only were her forces unable to take the settlement, but she was killed in the ensuing battle. Deprived of their leader, and with no clear successor, her army immediately fragmented between rival claimants. As her army fragmented, Preah Khan chose to take advantage of the situation by pressing into the Butcher’s former territories. He quickly took control of her front around Chryslus Castle, then pushed south to try to finish off what was left. In response, Black Alice, one of her lieutenants, seized control of her remaining southern holdings, consolidating them by force. This stopped Preah Khan’s forces dead, but left them in a strategically superior position. While Black Alice rebuilt and even expanded her holdings, a new factor entered into the conflict. Bun-Bun the Destroyer had been building an army in northern Michigan, and now was marching on the Detroit Wasteland with an eye towards conquest. Entering the city, his army absorbed the remnants of the Butcher’s northern front, before again going to war with Preah Khan. Once again, the warlord’s forces were pushed back, giving up much of what they had gained. Poor planning and use of resources on the part of Preah Khan’s forces served to only exacerbate the problem, leaving them with no footholds in the area and no effective counter to Bun-Bun. Confident that he had driven back his competition, Bun-Bun launched his own attack on Chryslus Castle. This attack was also driven back, the Castle Guard having had several years to prepare for a second attack and stock up on weapons. None the less, Bun-Bun was left with considerable holdings in the area and a base of operations from which he could further expand. Seeking to keep his army moving and to open up new opportunities, Bun-Bun pushed south and westwards into the ruins. Aftermath While the last of the warlords was defeated in 2201, their effects on the Detroit Wasteland would be felt for generations to come. First and foremost, the Warlords and their efforts at conquest lead to a consolidation of power in the three major settlements of the Detroit Wasteland; Chryslus Castle, Grand Central and Park Lane. While all three had been attacked at various stages, none of them had ever fallen. Their political and social structures had survived intact, and they had remained functional throughout. The power and authority of their leadership had increased as all three had raised standing militaries in order to deal with these threats. By comparison, the power of the smaller settlements had waned during the period. Many of them had been conquered by the warlords or forced into becoming vassals, which had sapped them of their power, resources and population (with many of the latter being killed or forcibly conscripted into the Warlords armies). A good portion of those had then changed hands several times, each instance serving to further grind them down. Following the collapse of the Warlords, many of those settlements had been rendered completely nonviable as a result of decades of abuse. They were promptly abandoned as their populations fled towards the larger, safer settlements. Those that remained were usually those too far removed from the major settlements to make relocation possible, such as those in the eastern parts of the city. The few new settlements that did rise to power, Arsetown, Baggie High and Scrap Iron City, did such towards the centre of the Detroit Wasteland. The second major impact was the rise of isolationism in all three of the major settlements. The reach of the warlords, as well as the geographical distance between the three had prevented each from aiding the other during the conflict. Furthermore, there was a certain unwillingness to provide assistance, lest it leave the provider vulnerable to an attack. As a result, all three opted to look out for themselves and had very little reason to trust the others. While they did trade with each other, none of the three was ever willing to engage on any meaningful level beyond that. Events in the early 23rd century would only serve to exacerbate this separation. At the same time, none of the three had any interest in looking beyond their own walls and engaging with the other smaller communities around them and instead chose to remain passive and reactive. This resulted in something of a wasted opportunity, given the degree to which raider numbers had fallen following the collapse of the last warlord armies. The circumstances were right for the three to expand and reshape the Detroit Wastelands into something closer to an actual city, but instead they opted to do nothing. This lead to the third consequence, which was a power vacuum. Most of the city was still a no-mans land controlled by no one power or group. Left to their own devices, the remaining raiders began to once more band together, carving up the bulk of the city into their territories once again. Soon powerful new gangs emerged, such as the Gentlemen, who were basically given free reign to carry on their business as always by the isolationist, indrawn major settlements. However, none of these gangs would ever reach the same level of power and reach that the Warlords had boasted. Another, completely unexpected group would also take advantage of the situation. Super Mutants first entered the city from the south-west in the early 23rd century, taking up residence on Zug Island. Their early expansion was aided by a lack of organised resistance as they probed the fallen city; the few raider gangs they encountered offered only minimal resistance. While the Super Mutants did not end up holding much territory outside of Zug Island (preferring to be semi-nomadic as they roamed in search of the mythical ‘green stuff’) this lack of resistance allowed them to become firmly entrenched. The Detroit Wasteland would not see any group comparable in power to the Warlords until the rise of the Army of Revolution in the mid 23rd century. Far more organised than the Warlords ever were and lacking in serious competition for power, the Army of Revolution would achieve more than their predecessors ever could, before they too were destroyed. Finally, the Warlords had impacts that carried well beyond the Detroit Wasteland. Prior to their rise, the bulk of the Michigan population was made up of what would be best described as Tribals. Small homesteads also dotted the region, but they were few and isolated. The Tribals would serve as the fodder for Preah Khan, the Butcher and Bun-Bun the Destroyer's armies, with numerous groups conquered and forcibly absorbed into their ranks. This would see numerous tribes destroyed, or effectively relocated to the Detroit Wasteland where they would in turn see their identities broken down. Most would then in turn be left marooned in the city after the collapse of the Warlords. Consequently, the Michigan Tribal population suffered losses that it never recovered from. Most of those conquered and absorbed groups would never reconstitute, while those tribes that remained would be scattered. In the next few decades, the Tribals would wither away, while their lands were claimed by homesteaders and raiders. Equipment While their armies may have had different origins, the various Warlords’ forces fielded similar technology. For the most part, their arsenals were reflective of their origins as raiders, tribals and settlers that they conscripted. The warlords had little to no manufacturing capabilities, and as such, scavenging was the order of the day. Looting the bodies of their fallen foes was a vital part of keeping their campaigns running, which also resulted in very little standardisation among their forces. For the most part, their technological capabilities were poor. Scratchbuilt Pipe guns provided the bulk of their arsenals due to their ease of manufacture and ready availability. Likewise, makeshift melee weapons were also common due to a shortage of both weapons and reliable ammunition sources. When manufactured, pre-war firearms did occur within their ranks, they were usually simple civilian weapons such as hunting rifles and shotguns. Body armour followed a similar pattern, with scratch-built protection being the order of the day. Outside of their arsenals, the Warlords built very little. Their fortifications were usually makeshift and ramshackle, based around doing their best to shore up and hold pre-war structures. Chem use was also common among their armies, with several different Warlords having some ability to manufacture chems for their forces. Those that enhanced battlefield performance, such as Psycho or Buffout, were the most commonly produced and most sought after. Only two of the Warlords are known to have fielded Power Armour suits in their forces, and in both cases they were operated by the Warlord themselves. Bun-Bun the Destroyer wore a suit of Raider Power armour, the origin of which was as enigmatic as the Warlord was. The suit was as much a part of their image as anything else, to the point that they were never seen outside of it. Black Alice used a heavily customised T-45d suit that was likely salvaged from a ruin in the Detroit Wasteland, and was acquired sometime after the death of her former leader, the Butcher. The Warlords of Detroit * Preah Khan * The Butcher * Black Alice * Durham Red * Hacksaw * Bun-Bun the Destroyer * White Fang * Jimmy Bones * Killmeister Image:Black Alice.jpg|Black Alice Image:Bunbun.png|Bun-Bun the Destroyer Image:npcbutcher.jpg|The Butcher Image:Durham Red.jpg|Durham Red Image:hacksawjim.jpg|Hacksaw Image:Jimmy.png|Jimmy Bones Image:Killmeister.jpg|Killmeister Image:Preah Khan.jpg|Preah Khan Category:Groups Category:Raiders Category:Michigan Category:Defunct